Stewed Red Beans
Rice and Beans go together like ham and cheese. And today, we learned to make Puerto Rican Beans. Fall in love with this delicious recipe.
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 207kcal
Equipment
- saucepan with lid
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 small onion peeled and diced
- 1 clove garlic peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoon of sofrito
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 bay leaf
- 1½ cups rehydrated beans or one can desired beans
- 1 cup broth use as needed.
- 1 can tomato sauce use as needed
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Warm a sauce pot and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, saute the onions until they soften. Add garlic.
- Cook the onions and garlic until soft. Add sofrito and tomato paste. Cook until all ingredients are aromatic and tender.
- Add rehydrated or canned beans to the pot. Mix to incorporate the flavors of the sofrito, onions, garlic, and tomato paste.
- Add tomato sauce and broth, adjusting for consistency. Use more broth for a lighter, brothy finish or extra tomato sauce for a richer, tomato-forward flavor. Lower the heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 30 to 45 minutes until beans are tender to the tooth.
Notes
- Rehydrate Beans: The beauty of learning to rehydrate your beans or legumes is that you control what flavors go into the final product. Rehydrated beans also have a fresher flavor. Remember that once you decide to stew them after rehydration, the beans must be cooked for another 30 to 60 minutes. Keep this in mind so that your beans are not too mushy.
- Canned Beans: In my experience, canned beans are an already cooked product. However, we are imparting our flavor. So I purchase the beans in water rather than the ones in sauce, and I rinse the beans before "cooking." I want the beans to have as much of my flavor as possible.
- Thickeners: I did not include thickeners in this recipe because I am offering the most basic form of making these beans. However, calabaza and potato are traditionally used together or independently to thicken beans.
Nutrition
Serving: 4oz | Calories: 207kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 1144mg | Potassium: 854mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 1077IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 3mg
